There is no role for coaches in cricket: Miandad

KARACHI: Pakistan's former captain Javed Miandad does not believe there is any role for a coach in cricket but has insisted that a "planner" is needed to be associated with teams.

"I don't think there is a role for a coach in cricket but you can say a team needs a planner. Someone who can plan out strategies for each match and provide feedback to the players and motivate them," Miandad said.

Miandad, who himself remained coach of the national team thrice, said he didn't believe that specialist coaches for every department of the game was the solution.

"I believe that in cricket it is eventually up to the player who he performs or delivers. No matter how much you coach or advice a player but once he is out there in the middle it is entirely up to him how he responds and performs," he said.

Miandad said if players required any coaching after graduating into the Pakistan team, they didn't deserve to be playing international cricket at all.

"At this level what can you coach a player. But yes if you have a planner he can define a clear role for players and for every match," he said.

Miandad, who played 124 Tests for Pakistan over a span of nearly 21 years, said cricket was not like football or hockey.

"There is a role for a coach in these sports because he has total authority and say in selection of teams. But in cricket the final authority at the end of the day lies with the captain and he has to extract the best out of his players."

The former Test great pointed out that only those players became successful who individually worked hard on their game and learnt with each passing day and match.

Miandad also took a pot shot at the officials in the Cricket Board insisting that cricket in Pakistan was because of the players and not because of officials who had no experience of running cricket affairs.

"The new Chairman, Zaka Ashraf appears to be taking the right decisions and his reliance on former players is a good sign rather than on officials with no experience of cricket," he said.

Miandad, who so far has largely been ignored by the new Chairman, said he was brought into the Board by its chief patron President Asif Zardari and he was ready to serve in any capacity the Chairman felt was best for him.

The former Test captain also supported the concept of having day and night first class matches with a pink cricket ball insisting this was a viable solution to once again popularizing Test cricket in countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh where crowds had thinned out for tests and youngsters were also more inclined towards Twenty20 cricket.

"I think by experimenting with day and night first class matches you can recreate interest of youngsters in the longer version of the game which remains the real challenge for any cricketer even today," he added.